


Nothing Left To Lose

by DarkOwlFeather



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Canon "Death", Canon Typical Violence, Gen, No Characters From Tangled, Only the Song, Tangled:the series song, The Dragon Prince version
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-08-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:49:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25899232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkOwlFeather/pseuds/DarkOwlFeather
Summary: "Nothing Left to Lose" from Tangled: The Series, starring Claudia and Soren from the Dragon Prince.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	Nothing Left To Lose

**Author's Note:**

> Ever since I listened to Nothing Left to Lose, I thought about how the song resonated with Soren and Claudia in season 3. So, here we are!
> 
> I used a big part of both the series scripts and lyrics. I don't own the original versions.

_Outskirts of Lux Aurea, Elven territories, near the military camp led by Viren, King of Katolis._

Today had been a rough day. The human armies had come to Lux Aurea, got the scepter able to harness the Sun magic, and now, the Dark Mage Viren was starting to turn his troops into unrecognizable lava monsters. Soren, his son and crown-guard, felt out of his place, and couldn’t bare to stay any longer. He had, in front of everyone, refused the opportunity to become the first soldier to undergo the transformation. Not that he regretted. There was no regret in his mind, only fear. He walked away, quietly, away from the armies, from this madness.

As he was on the other side of the hill where his father was, Soren heard the steps of her sister Claudia coming. He turned around to face her, maybe for that one last time.

“Soren! What’s going on? Where are you going?” she shouted to him, pleadingly.

“I can’t stay here anymore, Claudia. You’ve seen what’s going on, what Dad turned Kasef into, and what… Dad turned into…” he told her, looking at the ground.

“Maybe he’s just doing what needs to be done.”

“Claudia, you’re changing too…”

This startled her, and she brought a hand to her now white streak of hair.

“This path you take, it’s a dangerous path, Clauds. Look around you, Lux Aurea, our armies. You take that step, and it will hard to turn back. It will pull you along, I know you see it. You know it seems wrong, though, it feels right. Because it’s our dad doing it. Don't you see this path he put us in leaves a permanent mark. Claudia, you’re becoming like our dad. It feels good at first, but you’ve seen what I’ve seen, all will slowly turns dark. With each passing day, we're all further astray from the light.”

“Soren, what are you trying to tell me? Just stay with us. Don’t break our family. We need to do this together, all of us together.”

“Claudia, I’d like to, I really do. But you’ve seen what’s happening as much as I did. Suddenly, we’ll lose our way and lose the thread, lose our cool, then lose our heads. Each of these men and women who trusted us, they had families too. What will you tell them? Every loss is harder to excuse. Don’t you see it? I’m leaving. You can’t stop me. Then, before you lose your faith in our father, ask yourself the right questions. I don’t want you to lose your soul, and lose complete control. Before it’s too late, please, I don’t want you to realize there's nothing left to lose if you follow that dark way.”

“Nothing left to lose?”

“Nothing,” repeated Soren, putting a hand on his sister’s shoulder. “But it’s not too late. Come with me, Claudia, you can leave him.”

“Please, Soren, don’t… Don’t do this to me… Don’t make me choose… Not again…”

Soren sighed. He had hoped he could get his sister to understand the mistakes she was about to do while following blindly their father.

“Okay then,” he said. “Goodbye, Clauds.”

He walked away, not looking back.

“No! Soren, don’t do this to me! No! No, no, no… No!”

He was gone. Away. From his family. For… ever?

**~ ~ ~**

_Under the shadow of the fallen Archdragon of the Sky Avizandum, plain of the Storm Spire, after the Battle of the Spire, Xadia._

The battle had been raging. Armies of Sunfire Elves had stand their ground against humans turned lava monsters. It had seemed their fury could know no end. They weren’t human anymore.

Dragon had came and fired at the battlefield. The soldiers had rose up again, stronger than ever before. And Viren had said to move on to the next step of their plan. Which Claudia understood, yet, was she accepting it? She thought of what her brother had told her days ago at Lux Aurea. She knew she was doing the right thing.

And then, the armies lead by Queen Aanya of Duren had came. And the battle was soon over. And yet, it wasn’t.

Ezran had seen Claudia get away in the smoke of dirt. He had followed her. And there, there was Viren. Hidden under a cover for the wounded. It was all too perfect. The pretend king of the old lineage slayed by the rightful king of the new one.

And then, it wasn’t perfect anymore. Soren came.

“Drop the staff, Father! It’s over!” he shouted to Viren. “I am a crown-guard. And he is the true king. I will do whatever is necessary to protect his life. Because now I know what the right thing to do is. Do you hear me?!”

Viren never answered his son. He was gone. But Claudia wasn’t gone yet.

“Soren! Wait! You’re making a mistake,” she told him.

“Lay down your staff and surrender,” repeated the crown-guard.

But Viren wasn’t listening to anything. He grunted, and readied himself. False-king Ezran would die today. But he wasn’t fast enough. The dark mage ought to stab his target, but he was the one stabbed before he could do anything. None saw it coming. Not even Soren, whose sword was halfway in his father’s chest, right into his heart. Red drops of blood started to drip on his white clothes. His falling staff clang on the ground.

None could believe this. Claudia brought her hand to her mouth, covering the horrified gasp caused by what just happened. Was her brother really ready to kill, in order to protect those who were against her and their father? She could see her brother’s horrified look as he fell on his knees, with his bloodied sword next to him in the dirt. He had… killed their father.

“How could you…” she said in a half-whispered voice.

“I… I… I had no choice”, was the only thing Soren could say.

“Why would he tried to hurt me?” asked Ezran, king, yet too young to understand the whole art of war. “When it’s so clear he couldn’t win. The battle is over.”

“No. It’s not,” said Claudia, hiding a smirk.

“What?”

“The real battle was never down here. All of this? Just a distraction.”

As if her words had been a trigger, Viren’s body started to disappear in a light mist of purple dark magic, uncovering three archangel lunaris.

“He was just an illusion!” shouted Soren. “Claudia! Where is he?!”

She smirked at his foolish question.

“Claudia! Answer me!” ordered her brother. “Don’t you see where following our father leads you? Becoming the villain isn’t the answer!”

“Is that what you think I am, Soren? You are the one who killed our father!”

“It was an illusion! Leave this dark magic madness, Claudia, you still have time!”

“No! This path our father led us to is a path paved in black. Do you think I don’t know that? We’re taking that road and we’re not looking back. We know what we’re doing, Soren! Each twist and each turn leads straight where we’re yearning to go. Our path isn’t that dark, don’t you see? We know where it ends. You joined the wrong side, Soren! You, and our rivals will fall! While our, no, my father and I, our powers will ascend. You can despise me, that's fine. We’re taking what's ours. The magic is ours! We’re doing it for all humanity! Don’t you see?”

“I don’t, Claudia,” he told her. “I only see madness. Don’t lose yourself in his game, he’s playing with you, Clauds. It’s not too late…”

“I’m not like you, brother. You, you lost your nerve, you lost the game. You and I, we're not the same anymore. I'm not lost, this fate was mine to choose. You’ll see me, when Father and I will be back for Katolis. We chose to lose those doubts that chained us, and lose each weakness that remains. If we must get away from you to overcome what comes for us, so be it! Now that we have nothing left to lose.”

“Claudia, I know deep inside, you’re still my younger sister. I’m not giving up on you. You have so much to hold onto.”

“I only want my rightful dues.”

“Yours or our father’s?” asked Soren, finally getting up. “Listen please, Claudia, don’t you lose more than you already have. Don’t lose your mind.”

“Lose? I’m not going to lose anything!”

“All's not lost, don't be so blind!”

“I refuse!”

“Cut your losses, drop the IOUs! He’s playing with you!”

“I refuse!” insisted Claudia, readying the Sun staff in an offensive position.

“You can still choose! It’s still time for you to choose!”

“What I want I'll take and keep! You can’t stop me, nor you can stop our father, Soren! You can't stop the turning of the screws.”

She threw the staff into the dirt at her feet, sending a surge of energy that made them fly over meters before falling back in the dirt.

“Now, I have nothing left to lose,” said Claudia.

She ran away with the staff in hands, to who knows where in the clouds of smoke.

Alone, Soren and Ezran could only see her shadow leaving them.

“She’s gone,” said the crown-guard. “She really is…”


End file.
